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Topic: Wooden gear construction (Read 14120 times)

Me and my insanity just got electrocuted by some interesting ideas. But since my insanity sparked it im clueless as to how to do it, so now im here...

Now many of you are familiar with gears and the technical aspects of them, I however, am not. So I want to make a project that uses those good old fashioned wooden gears. The kind with the dowelesque rods sticking out to form the teeth, but after suffering from a headache for the better half off the day and messing up on a physics problem 10 times making the same mistake every single time(I caught the mistake because it was an impossibility) I just cant seem to wrap my mind around how they work.

So my plan is to make my own gears out of wood using pegs as the teeth(I find real teeth would be more difficult), i know that i cant just throw them together because otherwise they wouldn't "mesh" and the thing would lock. How do I ensure the proper construction of the gears? Do i only have to ensure the pitch is correct?

This is what i am talking about:

« Last Edit: September 23, 2008, 07:28:07 PM by gamefreak »

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All hail Rodney, the holy 555 timerAnd Steve said: "Let there be lead!"

Now I've never messed with wooden peg gears before, but I would think that it should probably work the same way. 1st off, find out the diameter of yout 1st gear in inches, then count the teeth. Divide the teeth by the diameter. Make sure these #'s match up and it should work. In theory anyway.http://www.societyofrobots.com/mechanics_gears.shtml The only thing you'll be missing is the pressure angle, as your dowels probably won't have one. Hope this helps.

Umm? that isnt helpful. hmm, lets put nonsense into CAD and get magical results, right......CAD is only useful if you are modeling what you already have worked out. So how do I determine the length of the pegs so that they do not jam? I figured out the pitch due to ang5t but now im confused about how long the pegs can be.

« Last Edit: September 24, 2008, 05:39:17 PM by gamefreak »

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All hail Rodney, the holy 555 timerAnd Steve said: "Let there be lead!"

yea I looked at that, but it didnt really answer many of my questions, I think I have the gears themselves understood, but im curios as to how to build a chain for them, I figure that the teeth should act just fine as a sprocket.

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All hail Rodney, the holy 555 timerAnd Steve said: "Let there be lead!"

The thickness of each tooth also needs to be accounted for - it depends on the forces you expect/calculate. If the forces are too high, the teeth will bend/break.

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CAD is only useful if you are modeling what you already have worked out. So how do I determine the length of the pegs so that they do not jam?

I find CAD sometimes helps me visualize the problem much better, helping me work it out. My CAD also lets me animate motions, so it'll be useful to see if anything jams. You could also print your design out on paper, pin it to cardboard, then rotate the gears by hand to see if it works.

I Have inventor for that, I can do more than animate, I can simulate(thats right, I said it).

I can understand visualizing the problem, but useless posts advertising a product annoy people when it does nothing to help the problem.

My thinking for gear teeth is 1/8 to 1/4" thick dowels, but im wondering how well that can put up with high DC motor RPM. I was planning on taking a plain 6 volt motor from radioshack and then lowering its RPM with some wooden gears. My thought is that things that dont involve torque I should be fine, but to raise/lower an arm the teeth would take a beating and eventually shatter.

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All hail Rodney, the holy 555 timerAnd Steve said: "Let there be lead!"